About this Course

·Bio154/254/Neurobio254
is a combined upper-level undergraduate and graduate course.

·PhD students
must register for 254 (up to 5 units); master and undergraduate students should
register for 154 (4 units).

·This course
is based largely on experiments, rather than a collection of knowledge. We will
focus on a few topics that best illustrate the principles of scientific
inquiry, and represent the exciting areas of modern neurobiology research. Emphasis
will be given to problems whose molecular and cellular mechanisms are well
studied, and are inspirational.

·For further
details visit the course website below and on Coursework.

Course Lectures

·All lectures
will be given in PowerPoint / Keynote.

·By the end of
the lecture day, the entire presentation will be available in PDF to all
registered students on Coursework.

·Main
(recommended, not required) textbook: Principles
of Neural Science, by Kandel et al.Another recommended book: Fundamental
Neuroscience by Squire et al. Both are on reserve at the Falconer Library.
None of the textbooks can replace the lectures per se, which cover up-to-date
research, in presentation styles not paralleled by any textbooks. Therefore lecture attendance is
essential.

BIO254 Section Info

·Discussion
sections count towards 50% of the grade. Discussion sections are every Friday
starting October 1st from 1:15-3:05 pm at Gilbert 117.Each week three primary research papers
(PDFs posted on Coursework) need to be read in advance and are discussed in
depth.

·Grant
proposals count towards 50% of the grade.Outline is due by NOON on Friday November 19th, 2010 and
final grant proposal is due by NOON on Friday December 10th, 2010 at
Egle’s desk (MSLS 2nd floor, room P257, may contain cookies), or by
email to egle@stanford.edu.

BIO154 Section Info

BIO154
students please sign up with one of the five undergraduate TAs via Coursework.

·Discussion
sections are held weekly with TAs starting from 2nd week.On weeks 3, 5, 7 and 9, a research
paper will be discussed in depth.These
discussions contribute towards 20% of the grade.

·Midterm
papers count toward 40% of the grade and will be due by NOON on Friday November
19th, 2010.

·Final exam
counts toward 40% of the grade and will be held at 8:30-11:30am on Friday
December 10th, 2010.

·Prerequisites:
Both Juniors and Seniors are welcome. As long as you have taken Bio-core or
equivalent, don’t worry about other prerequisites. Majors in physical sciences,
engineering, and computer sciences wishing to learn about the brain are very
welcome to take the course.You
may find aspects of biology more difficult but your quantitative skills will
find their use. The best way to evaluate whether this course is suitable for
you is to attend a few lectures and work
on them afterwards. You can also attend office hours held by your section
TAs or by the head TA.

·We will allow
access of the lecture presentations to long-term Stanford auditors as well.